"Take me out to the ball game, take me out to the crowd…"

8-28-2011 Safeco Field

If you’ve ever been to Safeco Field, or Seattle for that matter, this was what I walked up to on a Sunday morning in August. The high would reach nearly 85 degrees probably around 2pm but when I took this picture it felt like a cool 55. Of course, Safeco Field is near the water front so this kind of weather made sense. It was also kids t-shirt day so getting to the ballpark early enough to beat the crowds was essential.

My Dad was attending this game with me so there will be a whole lot of pictures of me roaming the stadium looking for baseballs. It was kind of fun and the only thing I would change is to attend a game with him when there was batting practice. This being a Sunday game I wasn’t quite sure if they’d have batting practice or not and my chances of getting at least one baseball was on the line again. Before this game I was currently sitting at 89 consecutive baseball games attended and getting at least one baseball. Since I snagged my 100th baseball on the season, my 200th lifetime baseball and I’m also getting close to snagging my 100th baseball AT Safeco Field, it should would be awesome to snag a baseball in 100 consecutive games this season. I’d need to attend at least 10 more games for that to happen. Its pretty do-able. unfortunately, there are about 14 home games here at Safeco Field left…and I’m still trying to go see Sun Life Stadium in Florida this year.

Here’s me trying to act like the Mariner Moose:

When I got into the stadium at 10:40am there was very little going on. A couple of Mariners were playing long toss on the other side of the field and some Chicago Whitesox players were doing the same on their side of the stadium. Other than that…it was dead. Here’s a picture of the action:

Like I said. Totally dead. The batting practice equipment was not set up so batting practice would not happen. But the crowd was relatively light so I could safely assume I’d leave the ballpark with my consecutive game streak still in tact.

Here’s a picture of me looking through the Mariners bullpen courtesy of my Father:

He has this really cool camera so the pictures came out really good. If you want to check out more of his pictures just click here. He’s got some really awesome stuff.

Once the rest of the stadium opened up at ten after eleven I ran up the stairs that I talked about on 8-26-2011 here at Safeco Field, and made my way down into the lower seating bowl. I was greeted by security and was told there wouldn’t be any batting practice. Duh. First of all it was a Sunday. And really, it being a Sunday has very little to do with it. It’s actually the scheduled game time of 1:10pm that has everything to do with it. Especially if a game carries into extra innings or lasts like six hours they normally don’t have batting practice the following day. Only because the players want to sleep in. But like I’ve said before. I’ve been to Sunday, or rather, 1:10pm games before and batting practice was in full swing.

When I got down to the lower seating bowl Will Ohman of the Chicago Whitesox was out onto the field warming up. I had to say hi.

And then I tried to get the baseball from him:

With that stance, it was so ridiculous that I got Will Ohman to laugh. Not that he doesn’t ever laugh but it was just so silly of me. He ended up giving the baseball to two younger Mariner fans after he got them to ask for the baseball using the word “please”. I thought that was the right thing to do anyway.

After Will walked off the field that was it for a while. I walked to the opposite side of the stadium and waited on Chone Figgins to walk towards the dugout but then I saw that more Mariners were making their way out onto the field. If this was the time to get a baseball then this would be the time. Every Mariner pitcher was out on the grass tossing baseballs around. I could take my chances on an errant throw or I could just go for the old fashion toss-up. I weighted my options and tried for a toss-up from Jamey Wright and Brandon League.

As you can see Safeco Field was still quite a sight with that fog rolling in from the water front. It really made for good pictures. Like this one:

After Brandon League and Jamey Wright finished playing catch, Brandon League tossed the baseball into the right field bleachers. I was still looking for a toss-up from a Mariner pitcher but then I figured while I was looking for a toss-up I might as well play for an errant throw too. I tried to squeeze in on the first base wall but there were so many people waiting for autographs. I had to hang back for a while. But I had some time to kill.

I’m standing by the little kid in the Mariners jersey. I’m wearing the green shirt. I knew that since Tom Wilhelmsen and Dan Cortes were on the field things were going to happen for me. They’re two of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. But when Chance Ruffin finished up throwing and came over to sign autographs right in front of me I knew I had to make the ultimate decision; leave this spot or stay here and hope for an overthrow or a toss-up. The problem with staying put? I’d be fighting a HUGE crowd. So I carried on a short conversation with Chance, got his autograph and bailed.

The moment I started walking away, Tom Wilhelmsen finished up his game of catch. He came over to the end spot near the Mariners dugout and started signing autographs. He also had a baseball in his glove. He handed his glove off to the security guard so he could free up his hands to sign autographs and I patiently waited. I also took this photo:

I’m not sure if he just climbed over the railing and took up a spot on the dugout to sign or it was some kind of special signing day. Either way it was pretty awesome. I didn’t hear anything from the Mariners about Jamey Wright signing autographs but Jamey is a pretty awesome guy. I’m pretty sure he just jumped up there and started signing. Meanwhile, Tom finished up signing autographs, grabbed his glove,(and baseball) from the security guard and started walking towards the dugout. I had to call his name twice and when he looked at me I flapped my glove at him. He lobbed the baseball to me and I had to knock it down with my non-glove hand into my mitt to make that catch. He apologized but I reassured him that I’d of made the catch anyway and it was no problem. With that snag that is my 90th consecutive game with at least one baseball.

This was my view during the game:

While I was sitting there I narrowly missed a home run ball from Dayan Viciedo. It landed in the front row and the guy sitting there didn’t even have to move. He just stuck his glove out and made the catch. Had I been really paying attention? The second row behind him was clear, and all I had to do was manuever down there and stand behind him at the last-minute to make the catch. It ate me up at first but there was no sense in staying mad about it.

Here are a few pictures my Dad got while sitting behind me.

Yes, Guti was safe. In case you were wondering.

Yes, Guti caught the baseball. In case you were wondering that as well.

No, Trayvon Robinson did not catch this baseball. But it still made for an amazing picture.

And of course no blog entry would be complete without a picture of Mariners bullpen catcher, Jason Phillips, chillin` on the outfield wall.

Here’s a screenshot of myself and my Dad during the Dayan Viciedo home run:

The dude that caught the home run baseball is the fourth guy from the left. It actually was a pretty impressive snag for not having to move at all.

2 Comments

Great pix Wayne, great to meet your dad too, What a nice guy. I love that picture of Safeco in the fog. I must have gotten there before you because when I got off I-5 there were no stadiums there at all! I talked to a security guard and we both agreed we could see our breath that morning, it must have been in the 50s. It was an awesome day!

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